Cotton became interested in music when he first heard Sonny Boy Williamson II on the radio.He left home with his uncle and moved to West Helena, Arkansas finding Williamson there. For many years Cotton claimed that he told Williamson that he was an orphan, and that Williamson took him in and raised him; a story he admitted in recent years is not true.

Williamson did however mentor Cotton during his early years.When Williamson left the south to live with his estranged wife in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he left his band in Cotton's hands. Cotton was quoted as saying, "He just gave it to me. But I couldn't hold it together 'cause I was too young and crazy in those days an' everybody in the band was grown men, so much older than me."Cotton performing in 2008 Although he played drums early in his career, Cotton is famous for his work on the harmonica.

Cotton began his professional career playing the blues harp in Howling Wolf's band in the early 1950s. He made his first recordings as a solo artist for the Sun Records label in Memphis, Tennessee in 1953. Cotton began to work with the Muddy Waters Band around 1955.He performed songs such as "Got My Mojo Working" and "She's Nineteen Years Old", although he did not appear on the original recordings; long-time Muddy Waters harmonica player Little Walter was utilized on most of Muddy's recording sessions in the 1950s.

Cotton's first recording session with Waters took place in June 1957, and he would alternate with Little Walter on Muddy's recording sessions until the end of the decade, and thereafter until he left to form his own band. In 1965 he formed the Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet, utilizing Otis Spann on piano to record between gigs with Waters' band. Their performances were captured by producer Samuel Charters on volume two of the Vanguard recording Chicago/The Blues/Today!.

After leaving Muddy's band in 1966, Cotton toured with Janis Joplin while pursuing a solo career. He formed the James Cotton Blues Band in 1967. They mainly performed their own arrangements of popular blues and R&B material from the 1950s and 1960s. Two albums were recorded live in Montreal that year.James Cotton at Jeff Healey's blues nightclub in TorontoIn the 1960s, Cotton formed a blues band in the tradition of Bobby "Blue" Bland. Four tracks that featured the big band horn sound and traditional songs were captured on the album Two Sides of the Blue.

In the 1970s, Cotton recorded several albums with Buddah Records. Cotton played harmonica on Muddy Water's Grammy Award winning 1977 album Hard Again, produced by Johnny Winter. The James Cotton Blues Band received a Grammy nomination in 1984 for Live From Chicago: Mr. Superharp Himself!, and a second for his 1987 release, Take Me Back. He finally was awarded a Grammy for Deep in the Blues in 1996 for Best Traditional Blues Album.

Cotton appeared on the cover of Living Blues magazine in 1987 in the July/August issue (#76). He was featured in the same publication's 40th anniversary issue, released in 2010 in August/September.

Cotton battled throat cancer in the mid-1990s, and his last recorded vocal performance was on 2000's Fire Down Under the Hill, but he continued to tour, utilizing singers or his backing band members as vocalists. Cotton's latest studio album, Giant, is scheduled for release on Alligator Records in late September 2010.

On March 10, 2008, Cotton and Ben Harper inducted Little Walter into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They performed "Juke" and "My Babe" together at the induction ceremony, which was broadcast nationwide on VH1 Classic."Deep In The Blues" is an acoustic jam session between master harp-player James Cotton, guitarist Joe Louis Walker and Jazz bassist Charlie Haden, with pianist Dave Maxwell sitting in on a few tracks. Walker, Haden and Maxwell make a perfect supporting band to James Cotton's gruff vocals and spontaneous harp playing.

The band performs James Cotton classics, and new material (mostly written by James Cotton and Joe Louis Walker), and covers a few songs by Big Maceo, Muddy Waters, Percy Mayfield and Sonny Boy Williamson.Cotton's playing is breath-taking with emotion ; in addition to his own solos, he tastefully drops in a few notes at perfectly felt moments, during Walker and Haden's own parts. Haden brings a jazzy feel to the album, and appears alone with his upright bass on "Ozark Mountain Railroad".

Walker also gets his moment of exposure, with his performance on National Steel Guitar in his own "Vineyard Blues".Put this CD on, sit back, close your eyes, and be prepared for a few chills down your spine. "Deep In The Blues" is a Blues masterpiece, performed by experienced players, that have the ability to join their talents, in addition to their technical skills, to record with such a level of feeling.Personnel: